SAY what you will about Victor Hugo’s France – and his “Les Miserables” says plenty – but life was never as colorful then as it is now.

When the curtain rises tonight on Cameron Mackintosh’s “Les Miz” revival, you’ll see a show that might have been cast by Benetton: There’s a black Javert, a Latina Fantine, an Italian-American Valjean and (for some performances) a Chinese-

Jewish Little Cosette, who grows into a fetching Filipina.

In all, it’s a far cry from what the musical looked like back in 1987, when an all-white cast first played it on Broadway.

And that, says everyone connected with the show, is how it should be.

“If the diversity is right across the cast, people just accept that it’s a world where these things don’t matter,” says director John Caird. “It’s more important to reflect the society for whom we’re presenting the piece than trying to be historically accurate about the time in which it was written.”

Naturally, he says, there are exceptions.

“It would be wrong to make all the [“Les Miz”] students black, or to suggest that 19th-century France was like South Africa in the ’60s,” he says. “That would be hijacking the show. And it would be preposterous to have colorblind casting in a piece like ‘The Color Purple,” which specifically addresses race.”

But given, say, a historical work like Hugo’s, there’s plenty of latitude – especially in New York, which Caird calls “the United Nations,” both onstage and off.

Few people are as sensitive about the issue as producer Mackintosh. He was the one who insisted Jonathan Pryce star in “Miss Saigon” – though many chafed at having a white Brit play an Asian.

“They had a good point to make – giving Asians roles – but a lot of them hadn’t had a lot of experience,” he says. “No one could play the Engineer better than Jonathan Pryce!”

In time, Mackintosh says, the show became a monster hit – employing more Asian actors than any show since “Flower Drum Song.”

He calls his multicultural “Les Miz” a sign of the times.

“You wouldn’t have had the opportunity to have so many people in these parts 15 years ago,” he insists. “There weren’t as many available actors who would have suited ‘Les Miz’ then.”

Indeed, says the show’s casting director, Tara Rubin, not only did the original “Les Miz” gradually become more diverse, but the first person cast for the revival was Norm Lewis – the hunky black baritone who plays Inspector Javert, the dogged pursuer of Jean Valjean (played by Alexander Gemignani).

And yes, Lewis says, times have changed.

“When I first came to New York, in 1989, I knew there were shows you could do – ‘Ain’t Misbehavin,’ ‘ ‘Once on This Island’ – and shows you didn’t think you were right for . . .

“I ended up saying, ‘Screw it.’ Unless they asked for a certain height or a blond-haired, blue-eyed person, I went for it.”

“Basically, ‘Les Miz’ has a message of hope in general, no matter who plays the role,” he says. “Seeing all those different ethnicities onstage, the underlying message is, ‘Here are all these people working together toward the same goal,’ and that’s a message of hope, as well.”